The Nigeria Customs Service has said that imported poultry products are the major cause of cancer in Nigeria because most of them are preserved with poisonous chemicals, Punch reports.
The Customs Area Controller in charge of the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Ikeja, Lagos, Hussein Ejibunu, disclosed this to journalist at the command.
He advised Nigerians to patronise local poultry farmers in situations where they need poultry products.
“It is criminal for somebody to bring in poison; I call it poison. It is a chemical they use in preparing dead bodies that they use to preserve those poultry products. If you travel overseas, you won’t see them using that chemical to preserve what they are consuming.
Recall in 2023, the CBN lifted the forex restriction on the importation of poultry products and other 42 items.
Ejibunnu reiterated that the importation of poultry products was still banned.
“We seized over 3,000 cartons in 2023. It is under absolute ban and we are going to make sure that we fight tooth and nail to make sure that such didn’t come in.”
He noted that smugglers capitalised on the country’s borders to bring in those poisonous poultry products.
The FOU A Customs boss added that the service intended to dissuade Nigerians from consuming foreign goods that have good local substitutes.
Smuggling is not something you would stamp out, but we would focus on those issues to ensure that gradually they are out of our system,” he said
